Files
mesh-controller/examples/route-proxy/main.go
T
jschoubben 24f024dd74 The proxy is told its routes and the mesh on the bus, and serves internal names to the mesh only
The proxy answered every routed name to any request carrying it, so an
internal-only route would have been public under its internal name. Each
membership now carries what its module receives, from the same
composition as its received file, and every machine's private-network
address, the list the packet filter's "from the mesh" is. The proxy
follows its membership, serves internal names only to those machines and
itself, and keeps the file until the bus has spoken (novox/hq ADR 0167,
issue 191).
2026-10-02 01:46:30 +02:00

1058 lines
43 KiB
Go

// A reverse proxy, in the form the mesh expects one.
//
// **A route is a grant** (novox/hq ADR 0007, 08-connectivity §3). A module that must be reachable
// declares it requires `route` and contributes the name it wants; the proxy provides `route` and
// receives every consumer that asked. It is the mirror of a database grant: there the consumer
// supplies a name and receives credentials, here it supplies a target and receives a name.
//
// **It is an example, not part of the control plane.** The control plane decides and never touches
// a machine. A real deployment runs whatever proxy it likes — the contract is the file, not this
// program. What lives here is that contract, written as something that runs so it can be read
// rather than described.
//
// **A route also carries what a request arriving at it may do** (novox/hq ADR 0108). The grant used
// to say only where to send traffic, so this proxy applied nothing; the four things the ingress it
// replaces actually relies on are now part of the contribution. The set is closed at four, because
// an open middleware surface recreates the thing being replaced and is far harder to narrow later
// than a closed one is to widen.
//
// What it is given, written by the host from an ordinary declaration:
//
// $ROUTES every consumer, the name it asked for, and where the mesh says that machine is
//
// Each contribution's values carry the name and port as before, and optionally:
//
// path the path prefix this rule is scoped to; absent means every path
// priority which rule wins where two match; higher first, and the order is total
// deny refuse the request outright — the shape an incident mitigation needs
// redirect answer with a permanent redirect to this name, keeping the path and query
// auth the *path of a secret* holding `user:hash` lines, never the credential itself
//
// A host may appear more than once, which is what path scoping means: one rule refusing a path
// while another serves everything else on the same name.
//
// **`auth` names a secret and never holds one.** A declaration carrying a credential is refused
// outright rather than served unprotected, and a secret that cannot be read makes the route refuse
// rather than open — a gate that cannot check is not a gate that opens.
//
// It re-reads on change rather than being restarted, for the same reason the provisioner does:
// a route arriving or leaving is an ordinary event and must not drop the connections of every
// other workload.
package main
import (
"bytes"
"context"
"crypto/sha256"
"crypto/subtle"
"crypto/tls"
"crypto/x509"
"encoding/hex"
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"log"
"net"
"net/http"
"net/http/httputil"
"net/netip"
"net/url"
"os"
"path/filepath"
"sort"
"strings"
"sync"
"sync/atomic"
"time"
"golang.org/x/crypto/acme"
"golang.org/x/crypto/acme/autocert"
"golang.org/x/crypto/bcrypt"
)
// Where public certificates come from when nothing says otherwise.
//
// **Staging, deliberately** (novox/hq 04-ISSUES/004). Production issuance is rate-limited per
// domain and per account, the quota does not replenish quickly, and exhausting it removes the
// ability to issue a certificate somebody actually needs. Defaulting to production would leave
// the safe path depending on remembering to opt out of it, on exactly the work most likely to
// iterate — standing up a node, changing how names resolve.
//
// A staging certificate is trusted by no browser, so the mistake announces itself on the first
// request rather than a fortnight later at the rate limit.
const stagingDirectory = "https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory"
// issuer is the ACME directory to ask. The lab points this at its own issuer; a node serving real
// traffic points it at production, and says so explicitly.
func issuer() string {
if named := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("ACME_DIRECTORY")); named != "" {
return named
}
return stagingDirectory
}
// onlyWhatTheMeshSaid refuses to obtain a certificate for a name this proxy was not given.
//
// **The policy that stops a quota from being spent by accident.** Without it, anything that can
// reach port 443 and send a name triggers an issuance attempt for it — so a scan, or one
// misconfigured client, becomes a stream of failed orders against the account's rate limit. What
// this proxy may certify is exactly what the mesh told it to route, which is already the answer
// to what it may serve.
func onlyWhatTheMeshSaid(held *table) autocert.HostPolicy {
return func(_ context.Context, host string) error {
if held.eligibleForACME(host) {
return nil
}
return fmt.Errorf("no public route for %q in this mesh, so no certificate is asked for", host)
}
}
// onlyInternalNamesTheMeshSaid is onlyWhatTheMeshSaid's mirror for the internal authority — the
// same quota-spending concern applies even to an authority with no rate limit of its own, because
// an order for a name this proxy does not actually route is a bug worth refusing rather than
// serving.
func onlyInternalNamesTheMeshSaid(held *table) autocert.HostPolicy {
return func(_ context.Context, host string) error {
if held.eligibleForInternalACME(host) {
return nil
}
return fmt.Errorf("no internal-only route for %q in this mesh, so no certificate is asked for", host)
}
}
// what the mesh writes: the contributions file, one entry per consumer.
type given struct {
Given []contribution `json:"given"`
}
type contribution struct {
From string `json:"from"`
Node string `json:"node"`
// At is where that machine is on the private network. The mesh knows it; a proxy that had to
// build it from the node name would be a naming convention copied into every provider.
At string `json:"at"`
Values map[string]any `json:"values"`
}
// policy is what a rule does with a request that matched it.
//
// **Decided by the mesh, not here** (novox/hq ADR 0108). A route grant used to hand back a name and
// say nothing about what the name admitted, so this proxy admitted everything. The set is closed at
// four — authentication, refusal, path scoping, redirect — because an open middleware surface
// recreates the thing being replaced and is far harder to narrow later than a closed one is to widen.
type policy struct {
// deny refuses the request outright, whatever it is.
deny bool
// redirectTo answers with a permanent redirect instead of proxying. The request's own path and
// query are carried across, which is what canonicalising one public name onto another means.
redirectTo string
// users is what a request must present, read at load time from the secret the declaration
// *named*. A declaration never carries the credential itself.
users map[string]string
// sealed is set when authentication was declared and the secret could not be read. The rule then
// refuses everything and says why.
//
// **Fail closed.** The alternative — serve the route unauthenticated because the gate is
// missing — turns an unreadable file into a silently public admin surface, which is the exact
// outcome ADR 0108 exists to prevent. A gate that cannot check is not a gate that opens.
sealed string
}
// rule is one way a host may be routed. A host may have several, which is what path scoping means.
type rule struct {
path string // "" matches every path
priority int
policy policy
to *httputil.ReverseProxy
target string
// insecure skips certificate verification when target is reached over https. For a backend
// that terminates TLS with its own certificate this proxy has no reason to trust — Mailu's
// webmail front is the first of these — never for anything reached over plain http, where
// there is nothing to verify in the first place.
insecure bool
// maxRequestBody is the largest body, in bytes, this route carries. Zero is no limit, which is
// what every route gets by saying nothing: this proxy has never limited a body, and a default
// arriving with the field would change every route that never asked for one.
//
// **Configuration, not a policy** (novox/hq ADR 0108 closed that set at four). It belongs beside
// `insecure` for the same reason `insecure` is not a policy: both tune how this proxy carries a
// request to a backend, rather than deciding what the name admits or who may reach it. A
// registry is the case that needs it — image layers arrive as single requests of gigabytes, and
// a proxy's own default refuses them long before the workload is reached.
maxRequestBody int64
}
// table is what the proxy is currently serving, replaced whole whenever the file changes.
//
// Replaced rather than merged: the file is the whole truth about who has a route, so merging
// would keep serving a name whose module was unassigned — which is the stale-route fault
// 08-connectivity lists as open, reintroduced one level down.
//
// Keyed by host to an *ordered* list rather than to one target, because two of the four policies
// need a single host routed more than one way: a refusal on a path the ordinary route also matches,
// and a certificate-challenge path on a host that otherwise serves a workload.
type table struct {
mu sync.RWMutex
to map[string][]rule
// public is which routed hosts are eligible for a real certificate — every host reached as a
// route's own `name`, never one reached only as its `internal-name`. A private alias can never
// pass ACME's own validation (it has no public DNS to prove it against), so asking for it is
// not merely pointless but the failing order onlyWhatTheMeshSaid exists to prevent.
public map[string]bool
// inside is where a request must come from to be served a name that is only internal: every
// machine's address on the private network, as the mesh issued it in this proxy's membership
// (novox/hq ADR 0167). Empty until it is issued, and then only the machine itself is inside.
inside sources
}
// sources is who may be served an internal name: the private network's addresses as the mesh
// issued them. The machine itself is always inside — anything on a machine may call anything on it
// (novox/hq ADR 0144) — so loopback needs no entry.
type sources []netip.Prefix
// sourcesOf reads the addresses the mesh issued, each a single address or a range. One that does
// not parse is an error, not an entry skipped: the proxy would otherwise serve internal names to
// fewer machines than the mesh said, and say nothing.
func sourcesOf(mesh []string) (sources, error) {
var out sources
for _, entry := range mesh {
entry = strings.TrimSpace(entry)
if prefix, err := netip.ParsePrefix(entry); err == nil {
out = append(out, prefix.Masked())
continue
}
addr, err := netip.ParseAddr(entry)
if err != nil {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("%q is not an address on the private network", entry)
}
addr = addr.Unmap()
out = append(out, netip.PrefixFrom(addr, addr.BitLen()))
}
return out, nil
}
// holds says whether a request from this remote address came from the mesh or the machine itself.
//
// **By source, which the mesh's guard deliberately is not** — it names interfaces, because a source
// address can be claimed by whoever sends the packet. The proxy cannot see the interface a request
// arrived on, and here the claim does not carry: a connection needs its replies, and replies to a
// mesh address leave by the tunnel, never back to the claimant.
func (s sources) holds(remote string) bool {
host := remote
if h, _, err := net.SplitHostPort(remote); err == nil {
host = h
}
addr, err := netip.ParseAddr(host)
if err != nil {
return false
}
addr = addr.Unmap()
if addr.IsLoopback() {
return true
}
for _, prefix := range s {
if prefix.Contains(addr) {
return true
}
}
return false
}
func (t *table) set(routes map[string][]rule, public map[string]bool) {
made := map[string][]rule{}
for host, rules := range routes {
kept := make([]rule, 0, len(rules))
for _, r := range rules {
// A rule that only refuses or only redirects has nowhere to send anything, and needs
// nowhere: it answers by itself.
if r.policy.deny || r.policy.redirectTo != "" {
kept = append(kept, r)
continue
}
where, err := url.Parse(r.target)
if err != nil {
log.Printf("route %s points at %q, which is not a URL: %v", host, r.target, err)
continue
}
r.to = httputil.NewSingleHostReverseProxy(where)
if r.insecure {
r.to.Transport = &http.Transport{TLSClientConfig: &tls.Config{InsecureSkipVerify: true}}
}
kept = append(kept, r)
}
if len(kept) == 0 {
continue
}
inOrder(kept)
made[host] = kept
}
t.mu.Lock()
t.to = made
t.public = public
t.mu.Unlock()
}
// inOrder puts the rules for one host into the order they are matched in, and does so totally.
//
// **Equal priorities must resolve identically every time** (ADR 0108). Sorting only by priority
// leaves rules that share one in whatever order the map produced, so the same declaration would
// serve differently between restarts — a proxy that is not reproducible. Longest path first within a
// priority is also the intuitive reading: the more specific rule wins. The last two keys exist only
// to make the order total.
func inOrder(rules []rule) {
sort.SliceStable(rules, func(i, j int) bool {
a, b := rules[i], rules[j]
if a.priority != b.priority {
return a.priority > b.priority
}
if len(a.path) != len(b.path) {
return len(a.path) > len(b.path)
}
if a.path != b.path {
return a.path < b.path
}
return a.target < b.target
})
}
// find is the rule that answers this request, or nothing if the host is not routed here at all.
func (t *table) find(host, path string) (rule, bool) {
t.mu.RLock()
defer t.mu.RUnlock()
for _, r := range t.to[bareHost(host)] {
if r.path == "" || strings.HasPrefix(path, r.path) {
return r, true
}
}
return rule{}, false
}
// routed says whether this proxy serves the name at all, whatever the path.
//
// Separate from find because certificate issuance is a question about the *name*: a host whose only
// rules are path-scoped is still a name this proxy answers to, and still needs a certificate.
// eligibleForACME says whether this proxy may ask a certificate authority for this name — every
// host reached as a route's own public `name`, never one reached only as its `internal-name`
// alias, which no public CA can ever validate.
func (t *table) eligibleForACME(host string) bool {
t.mu.RLock()
defer t.mu.RUnlock()
bare := bareHost(host)
return len(t.to[bare]) > 0 && t.public[bare]
}
func (t *table) routed(host string) bool {
t.mu.RLock()
defer t.mu.RUnlock()
return len(t.to[bareHost(host)]) > 0
}
// eligibleForInternalACME says whether this proxy may ask its *internal* authority for a
// certificate for this name — every host it routes that is not also a route's public `name`.
//
// **The mesh has two name spaces and two authorities** (novox/hq 03-DESIGN/01-to-be/08-connectivity
// §2): a public name is certified by a public CA, an internal one by the mesh's own. This is
// composed only from `to` and `public`, which routesFrom already builds correctly — a host never
// lands in both a route's own `name` and only its `internal-name`, so nothing new has to be
// tracked to tell the two apart.
func (t *table) eligibleForInternalACME(host string) bool {
t.mu.RLock()
defer t.mu.RUnlock()
bare := bareHost(host)
return len(t.to[bare]) > 0 && !t.public[bare]
}
// bareHost is the name without the port, lower-cased.
//
// The port is not part of the name: a request to app.example:8080 is for app.example. Lower-cased
// because a Host header is not case-sensitive, and a route that only answers the spelling in the
// manifest answers half the requests made to it.
func bareHost(host string) string {
if h, _, err := net.SplitHostPort(host); err == nil {
host = h
}
return strings.ToLower(host)
}
// hiddenFrom says whether this host must look unrouted to a request from this address: it is
// only an internal name, and the request did not come from the private network.
//
// **The proxy is the only way in to a routed endpoint, so it is what makes `internal` true**
// (novox/hq ADR 0138, issue 191). It answers public names on the same listeners, so a request from
// anywhere can carry any Host header; a name being internal keeps nobody out unless this check does.
// Answered exactly as a name that was never routed, so an outsider learns nothing from asking.
func (t *table) hiddenFrom(host, remote string) bool {
if !t.eligibleForInternalACME(host) {
return false
}
t.mu.RLock()
defer t.mu.RUnlock()
return !t.inside.holds(remote)
}
// setInside replaces who the mesh is, as the membership said.
func (t *table) setInside(inside sources) {
t.mu.Lock()
t.inside = inside
t.mu.Unlock()
}
// namesSeenFrom is what this proxy says it serves to a request from this address — every routed
// name, less the internal-only ones when the request came from outside.
func (t *table) namesSeenFrom(remote string) []string {
out := []string{}
for _, name := range t.names() {
if !t.hiddenFrom(name, remote) {
out = append(out, name)
}
}
return out
}
func (t *table) names() []string {
t.mu.RLock()
defer t.mu.RUnlock()
out := make([]string, 0, len(t.to))
for name := range t.to {
out = append(out, name)
}
sort.Strings(out)
return out
}
func main() {
if err := run(); err != nil {
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, "mesh-route-proxy: "+err.Error())
os.Exit(1)
}
}
func run() error {
path := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("ROUTES"))
if path == "" {
return fmt.Errorf("ROUTES is not set, so this proxy does not know what it is routing")
}
listen := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("LISTEN"))
if listen == "" {
listen = ":80"
}
held := newTable()
// **The bus first, the file until it has spoken** (novox/hq ADR 0167). The membership carries
// the routes and who the mesh is; the file carries the routes alone, so while the proxy reads
// it an internal name is served to this machine and to nobody else — refused, never opened.
fromBus := &atomic.Bool{}
if credential := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("MESH_BROKER_FILE")); credential != "" {
go followMembership(credential, held, fromBus)
} else {
log.Printf("MESH_BROKER_FILE is not set: routes come from %s alone, and a name that is only "+
"internal is served to this machine alone", path)
}
read := func() {
if fromBus.Load() {
return
}
routes, public, err := routesFrom(path)
if err != nil {
// Kept serving what it had. A file being rewritten is momentarily unreadable, and
// dropping every route because one read landed mid-write would turn an ordinary
// event into an outage.
log.Printf("cannot read %s, keeping what is already served: %v", path, err)
return
}
held.set(routes, public)
log.Printf("serving %d route(s): %s", len(routes), strings.Join(held.names(), ", "))
}
read()
go func() {
for range time.Tick(2 * time.Second) {
read()
}
}()
// TLS is opt-in. A proxy with no `TLS_LISTEN` serves plain HTTP exactly as before — which is
// what an internal-only mesh wants, and what the mesh's own certificate authority already
// covers for names inside it (novox/hq 08-connectivity). This is for names reachable from
// outside, where the authority has to be one the world already trusts.
secure := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("TLS_LISTEN"))
if secure == "" {
return http.ListenAndServe(listen, handler(held))
}
cache := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("ACME_CACHE"))
if cache == "" {
// Refused rather than defaulted. Without somewhere durable to keep them, every restart
// orders new certificates — which works, silently, until the rate limit says it does not.
return fmt.Errorf("TLS_LISTEN is set and ACME_CACHE is not: certificates need somewhere " +
"to persist, or every restart orders them again")
}
publicManager, err := newManager(cache, issuer(), strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("ACME_CA_BUNDLE")),
onlyWhatTheMeshSaid(held))
if err != nil {
return err
}
log.Printf("issuing public certificates from %s, for whatever the mesh routes here", issuer())
// The internal authority is optional: unset means this proxy serves internal-only aliases over
// plain HTTP exactly as it always has, which is the standalone-binary default and a safe one —
// it asks nothing of an authority it was not told about.
var internalManager *autocert.Manager
if directory := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("INTERNAL_ACME_DIRECTORY")); directory != "" {
internalManager, err = newManager(cache, directory, strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("INTERNAL_ACME_CA_BUNDLE")),
onlyInternalNamesTheMeshSaid(held))
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("internal certificate authority: %w", err)
}
log.Printf("issuing internal certificates from %s, for every internal-only alias this routes",
directory)
}
// Port 80 answers the HTTP-01 challenge and goes on proxying everything else. The challenge
// must be answered *at the name being certified*, which is why issuance happens on the node
// that is publicly reachable rather than wherever the workload runs.
//
// **autocert's own HTTPHandler does not fall through on the challenge path.** For a token it
// does not hold it answers 404 itself; its fallback only ever sees non-challenge paths — which
// is exactly the predecessor's fault, the edge owning `/.well-known/acme-challenge` outright,
// rediscovered live when Mailu's renewal died behind this proxy on cutover day. tokenOrRoute
// probes each manager and hands a token neither authority recognises to plain routing, which
// is what lets a consumer's own ACME client — Mailu's, certifying its own name for a protocol
// this proxy never proxies — answer its own challenge through an ordinary path-scoped route.
port80 := tokenOrRoute(handler(held), publicManager)
if internalManager != nil {
port80 = tokenOrRoute(handler(held), publicManager, internalManager)
}
go func() {
if err := http.ListenAndServe(listen, port80); err != nil {
log.Printf("plain HTTP stopped: %v", err)
}
}()
tlsConfig := publicManager.TLSConfig()
tlsConfig.GetCertificate = certificateFor(held, tlsConfig.GetCertificate, internalManager)
server := &http.Server{
Addr: secure,
Handler: handler(held),
TLSConfig: tlsConfig,
}
return server.ListenAndServeTLS("", "")
}
// tokenOrRoute serves port 80: each manager answers the challenge tokens it is itself holding,
// and a token none of them holds is routed like any other request instead of being 404'd at the
// edge.
//
// autocert gives no way to ask "is this your token?" — its HTTPHandler both answers and refuses —
// so each manager is probed against a buffered writer and its refusal (404 on the challenge path)
// is discarded in favour of the next candidate. The probe is cheap: the handler answers from
// memory, and the path only carries traffic while an issuance is actually running.
func tokenOrRoute(routes http.Handler, managers ...*autocert.Manager) http.Handler {
const challengePrefix = "/.well-known/acme-challenge/"
// Non-challenge paths never reach a manager at all; autocert's tryHTTP01 switch still has to
// be armed, which HTTPHandler is the only exported way to do.
probes := make([]http.Handler, len(managers))
for i, m := range managers {
probes[i] = m.HTTPHandler(routes)
}
return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
if !strings.HasPrefix(r.URL.Path, challengePrefix) {
routes.ServeHTTP(w, r)
return
}
for _, probe := range probes {
buffered := &probedResponse{header: make(http.Header)}
probe.ServeHTTP(buffered, r)
// Two shapes of "not mine": 404, a token this manager is not holding — and 403, a
// name its host policy would never certify at all (autocert checks the policy before
// the token, so the internal authority answers 403 for every public name).
if buffered.status == http.StatusNotFound || buffered.status == http.StatusForbidden {
continue
}
buffered.replayTo(w)
return
}
routes.ServeHTTP(w, r) // no authority holds it: the workload behind a routed path may
})
}
// probedResponse buffers one handler's answer so a refusal can be discarded unseen.
type probedResponse struct {
header http.Header
status int
body bytes.Buffer
}
func (p *probedResponse) Header() http.Header { return p.header }
func (p *probedResponse) WriteHeader(status int) {
if p.status == 0 {
p.status = status
}
}
func (p *probedResponse) Write(b []byte) (int, error) {
if p.status == 0 {
p.status = http.StatusOK
}
return p.body.Write(b)
}
func (p *probedResponse) replayTo(w http.ResponseWriter) {
for k, vs := range p.header {
for _, v := range vs {
w.Header().Add(k, v)
}
}
status := p.status
if status == 0 {
status = http.StatusOK
}
w.WriteHeader(status)
_, _ = w.Write(p.body.Bytes())
}
// newManager is one ACME authority's autocert manager: where to ask, what to trust it with, and
// which names it may be asked to certify.
//
// **Trusting an authority names a file rather than skipping verification.** An issuer that is not
// one of the public ones — the lab's, or the mesh's own step-ca — serves its own ACME API over TLS
// with a certificate nothing trusts yet. *Skip* would also apply the day this points at a public
// issuer, and nothing would say so; naming a bundle is a deliberate, visible act instead.
func newManager(cache, directory, bundle string, policy autocert.HostPolicy) (*autocert.Manager, error) {
client := &acme.Client{DirectoryURL: directory}
var root []byte
if bundle != "" {
read, err := os.ReadFile(bundle)
if err != nil {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("the CA bundle names %s and it cannot be read: %w", bundle, err)
}
root = read
// An empty bundle means the issuer's root is already in the system trust store — a public
// authority whose root ships with the OS, pointed at by a provider that serves an empty
// root (novox/hq ADR 0066). The mesh always writes the bundle file, so it exists and holds
// nothing; that is the signal to fall back to the system roots, the same as if nothing had
// named a bundle at all. A file that holds bytes but no certificate is still a
// misconfiguration and is refused, because there the operator meant to trust something.
if strings.TrimSpace(string(root)) != "" {
pool := x509.NewCertPool()
if !pool.AppendCertsFromPEM(root) {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("%s holds no certificate this can trust", bundle)
}
client.HTTPClient = &http.Client{
Timeout: 30 * time.Second,
Transport: &http.Transport{TLSClientConfig: &tls.Config{RootCAs: pool}},
}
}
}
// Where this authority's account and certificates are kept. Per authority, not per proxy — see
// forThisAuthority, which is what makes a re-initialised CA heal itself, and what lets the
// public and internal authorities share one ACME_CACHE without colliding: they hash to
// different names because their directories differ.
mine := forThisAuthority(cache, directory, root)
return &autocert.Manager{
Cache: autocert.DirCache(mine),
Prompt: autocert.AcceptTOS,
HostPolicy: policy,
Client: client,
}, nil
}
// forThisAuthority is where one ACME authority's account and certificates are kept.
//
// **A cached ACME account belongs to the authority that issued it, and nothing in the cache says
// so** (novox/hq ADR 0066). autocert keeps its account key at one fixed name — `acme_account+key` —
// in whatever directory it is given, and reuses it for ever. That is right while the authority stays
// the same and silently wrong the moment it does not: an internal CA that is re-initialised is a new
// authority with a new root, it has never heard of the account in the cache, and every attempt to
// use it is rejected. autocert has no path back from that. Nothing is retried, nothing is
// re-registered, no order ever reaches the CA — issuance simply stops, with no error anybody sees,
// until a person deletes the directory by hand and finds out that was the answer.
//
// So the directory is named after the authority instead of being shared by all of them. The name is
// a digest of the two things that identify one: the directory URL, and the root this proxy was told
// to verify it with. Re-initialising the CA produces a new root; the mesh delivers it as a changed
// bundle; this proxy restarts on that file and lands in a directory with no account in it, so
// autocert registers afresh and orders again. **The healing is that the question "is this account
// still valid" never has to be asked** — an account is only ever found where it is still valid.
//
// It also fixes a latent one of the same shape: pointing ACME_DIRECTORY at production after testing
// against staging reused the staging account, because the cache had no idea they were different.
//
// The old directories stay on disk, unused. Left rather than deleted: they are the only copy of
// certificates that may still be valid, and this program is not the thing that should decide a
// certificate is finished with.
func forThisAuthority(cache, directory string, root []byte) string {
sum := sha256.Sum256([]byte(directory + "\x00" + string(bytes.TrimSpace(root))))
return filepath.Join(cache, hex.EncodeToString(sum[:])[:16])
}
// certificateFor picks the certificate a handshake is answered with.
//
// Dispatched by which authority may certify this name at all — the same question
// eligibleForInternalACME already answers, asked once more at handshake time rather than only when
// an order is placed, since a cached certificate is served here on every request and never goes
// through HostPolicy again. And refused, exactly as an unrouted name is, to a client outside the
// private network asking for a name that is only internal: the certificate would name it.
func certificateFor(held *table, fromPublic func(*tls.ClientHelloInfo) (*tls.Certificate, error),
internalManager *autocert.Manager) func(*tls.ClientHelloInfo) (*tls.Certificate, error) {
var fromInternal func(*tls.ClientHelloInfo) (*tls.Certificate, error)
if internalManager != nil {
fromInternal = internalManager.TLSConfig().GetCertificate
}
return func(hello *tls.ClientHelloInfo) (*tls.Certificate, error) {
if held.eligibleForInternalACME(hello.ServerName) {
if hello.Conn != nil && held.hiddenFrom(hello.ServerName, hello.Conn.RemoteAddr().String()) {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("no public route for %q in this mesh, so no certificate is asked for",
hello.ServerName)
}
if fromInternal != nil {
return fromInternal(hello)
}
}
return fromPublic(hello)
}
}
// newTable is an empty routing table.
func newTable() *table {
return &table{to: map[string][]rule{}}
}
// handler is the proxy itself, separated so it can be driven by a test without a listener.
func handler(held *table) http.Handler {
return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
hidden := held.hiddenFrom(r.Host, r.RemoteAddr)
matched, known := held.find(r.Host, r.URL.Path)
if hidden || !known {
// **Named, not a bare 404.** A route that was withdrawn and a name that never existed
// are different things, and a proxy that says only "not found" makes an operator go
// and read the mesh to tell them apart. What it is serving is the answer to both.
//
// And since a host may now be routed only on some paths, those are a third thing:
// saying "no route for this name" while listing that very name as served is a
// contradiction an operator would have to disbelieve the proxy to get past.
w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "text/plain; charset=utf-8")
w.WriteHeader(http.StatusNotFound)
if !hidden && held.routed(r.Host) {
fmt.Fprintf(w, "%s is served here, but no route covers %q.\n",
bareHost(r.Host), r.URL.Path)
return
}
fmt.Fprintf(w, "no route for %q in this mesh.\nserving: %s\n",
r.Host, strings.Join(held.namesSeenFrom(r.RemoteAddr), ", "))
return
}
switch {
case matched.policy.sealed != "":
// Declared a gate, cannot check it. Refused, and says why — an operator reading this
// learns the secret is missing, rather than wondering why a protected name is 503.
w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "text/plain; charset=utf-8")
w.WriteHeader(http.StatusServiceUnavailable)
fmt.Fprintf(w, "this route requires authentication and its credentials cannot be read: %s\n",
matched.policy.sealed)
return
case matched.policy.deny:
http.Error(w, "this path is not served to you", http.StatusForbidden)
return
case matched.policy.redirectTo != "":
http.Redirect(w, r, canonical(matched.policy.redirectTo, r.URL), http.StatusMovedPermanently)
return
case len(matched.policy.users) > 0 && !allowed(matched.policy.users, r):
// The realm is the name asked for, so a browser's prompt says which route it is for.
w.Header().Set("WWW-Authenticate", fmt.Sprintf("Basic realm=%q, charset=\"UTF-8\"", bareHost(r.Host)))
http.Error(w, "unauthorized", http.StatusUnauthorized)
return
}
if matched.maxRequestBody > 0 {
// Refused on the declared length where there is one, so an upload that cannot succeed
// is answered before it is carried; and capped while reading for a chunked body, which
// declares no length at all. Without the second, a limit is advice.
if r.ContentLength > matched.maxRequestBody {
http.Error(w, fmt.Sprintf("request body too large for this route: %d bytes is the most it carries",
matched.maxRequestBody), http.StatusRequestEntityTooLarge)
return
}
r.Body = http.MaxBytesReader(w, r.Body, matched.maxRequestBody)
}
matched.to.ServeHTTP(w, r)
})
}
// canonical is where a redirect sends this request.
//
// The declaration names the destination *name*; the request keeps its own path and query. That is
// what canonicalising one public name onto another means — a link to a page under the old name has
// to arrive at the same page under the new one, or the redirect silently loses every deep link.
func canonical(to string, from *url.URL) string {
where, err := url.Parse(to)
if err != nil {
return to
}
if where.Path == "" || where.Path == "/" {
where.Path = from.Path
}
if where.RawQuery == "" {
where.RawQuery = from.RawQuery
}
return where.String()
}
// allowed says whether the request presented credentials this route accepts.
//
// **Every path costs one bcrypt comparison**, including an unknown user, which is why the miss
// compares against a fixed hash rather than returning early. Returning early would make an unknown
// user measurably faster than a known one with a wrong password, and that difference is a way to
// enumerate the users of a route from outside it.
func allowed(users map[string]string, r *http.Request) bool {
// A hash of nothing anybody knows. Its only job is to cost what a real comparison costs.
const absent = "$2a$10$N9qo8uLOickgx2ZMRZoMyeIjZAgcfl7p92ldGxad68LJZdL17lhWy"
user, password, ok := r.BasicAuth()
if !ok {
return false
}
want, known := users[user]
if !known {
want = absent
}
if err := bcrypt.CompareHashAndPassword([]byte(want), []byte(password)); err != nil {
return false
}
// `known` is checked after the comparison, not instead of it, so the timing is the same either
// way. subtle.ConstantTimeByteEq keeps the branch from being the thing that differs.
return subtle.ConstantTimeByteEq(boolByte(known), 1) == 1
}
func boolByte(b bool) byte {
if b {
return 1
}
return 0
}
// routesFrom reads what the mesh wrote and turns it into host → the rules for that host, and
// which of those hosts is a public name — the second is `name`, ACME-eligible; a host reached
// only through `internal-name` never appears there.
//
// **A route may carry either name, or both** (novox/hq ADR 0138). How far an endpoint reaches
// decides which names the mesh composes, so an endpoint that reaches only the private network
// arrives with an `internal-name` and no `name`. That is a whole route, not a malformed one: it is
// served under its internal name and certified by the internal authority. Only a route with
// neither name has nothing to be served under (novox/hq issue 191).
func routesFrom(path string) (map[string][]rule, map[string]bool, error) {
raw, err := os.ReadFile(path)
if err != nil {
return nil, nil, err
}
var said given
if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &said); err != nil {
return nil, nil, err
}
routes, public := routesOf(said.Given)
return routes, public, nil
}
// routesOf turns what the mesh gave into host → the rules for that host, and which hosts are public
// names — the same whether the contributions came in the file or in the membership.
func routesOf(contributions []contribution) (map[string][]rule, map[string]bool) {
out := map[string][]rule{}
public := map[string]bool{}
for _, c := range contributions {
name, _ := c.Values["name"].(string)
name = strings.TrimSpace(name)
internal, _ := c.Values["internal-name"].(string)
internal = strings.TrimSpace(internal)
if name == "" && internal == "" {
log.Printf("%s on %s asked for a route and named nothing; skipped", c.From, c.Node)
continue
}
// What the route is called in a log line: its public name when it has one.
called := name
if called == "" {
called = internal
}
made := rule{path: asPath(c.Values["path"])}
if p, ok := asWhole(c.Values["priority"]); ok {
made.priority = p
}
made.policy.deny, _ = c.Values["deny"].(bool)
made.policy.redirectTo, _ = c.Values["redirect"].(string)
if named, carried := c.Values["auth"].(string); carried && strings.TrimSpace(named) != "" {
// **A declaration names a secret; it never holds one** (ADR 0108). Refused rather than
// tolerated, and the whole rule is dropped rather than served unprotected — the
// rejected option cannot come back by accident, which is the failure this check exists
// to make impossible.
if looksLikeACredential(named) {
log.Printf("%s on %s declared route %q with a credential in the declaration rather "+
"than the name of a secret; the whole route is refused (novox/hq ADR 0108)",
c.From, c.Node, called)
continue
}
users, err := usersFrom(named)
if err != nil {
// Fail closed: the rule is kept so the name stays routed and answers, and it
// answers by refusing. Dropping it instead would make the name 404 and read as a
// withdrawn route rather than an unreadable secret.
made.policy.sealed = err.Error()
}
made.policy.users = users
}
// Only a rule that actually proxies needs somewhere to send the request.
if !made.policy.deny && made.policy.redirectTo == "" {
port, ok := asPort(c.Values["port"])
if !ok {
log.Printf("%s on %s asked for route %q and gave no usable port; skipped",
c.From, c.Node, called)
continue
}
// Where the mesh says that machine is. Empty means it is this one — a workload beside
// the proxy is ordinary, and reaching it over loopback is both correct and the only
// thing that works when there is no private network.
at := c.At
if at == "" {
at = "127.0.0.1"
}
// http unless the contribution says otherwise. A backend that terminates its own TLS
// with a certificate this proxy has no reason to trust — Mailu's webmail front is the
// first of these — is the reason `insecure` exists, and it stays the exception: every
// other target the mesh hands this proxy is a plain workload on the private network.
scheme, _ := c.Values["scheme"].(string)
scheme = strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(scheme))
if scheme == "" {
scheme = "http"
}
if scheme != "http" && scheme != "https" {
log.Printf("%s on %s asked for route %q with scheme %q, which is neither http "+
"nor https; skipped", c.From, c.Node, called, scheme)
continue
}
made.insecure, _ = c.Values["insecure"].(bool)
// A limit this proxy cannot read is a route it does not serve, named like a port that
// is not a port. Serving it without the limit would carry exactly what the module said
// not to carry, and report success doing it.
if asked, said := c.Values["max-request-body"]; said {
bytes, whole := asWhole(asked)
if !whole || bytes <= 0 {
log.Printf("%s on %s asked for route %q with a max-request-body of %v, which is "+
"not a whole positive number of bytes; skipped", c.From, c.Node, called, asked)
continue
}
made.maxRequestBody = int64(bytes)
}
made.target = fmt.Sprintf("%s://%s:%d", scheme, at, port)
}
if name != "" {
host := strings.ToLower(name)
out[host] = append(out[host], made)
public[host] = true
}
// The internal-network name, the same rule under a second host — a predecessor proxy
// answered both for one route, as a convenience (reaching a service over the VPN without a
// public TLS round trip), not as an access boundary; composing it here restores exactly
// that, nothing more. Absent whenever the node composed no internal name (novox/hq ADR
// 0056's internalDomain half) — the same "nothing to join a label to" case the public name
// already has. And the only name, when the endpoint reaches no further than the private
// network.
if internal != "" {
out[strings.ToLower(internal)] = append(out[strings.ToLower(internal)], made)
}
}
return out, public
}
// asWhole is any whole number the mesh wrote, whatever its magnitude.
//
// **Not asPort.** Priority was read with the port reader first, which caps at 65535 — so a rule
// declared at a priority above that silently became priority 0 and stopped shadowing the route it
// exists to shadow. The one real rule this has to reproduce is declared at 100000, so the bug was
// exactly load-bearing. A priority is an ordering, not a port: it has no range.
func asWhole(v any) (int, bool) {
switch n := v.(type) {
case float64:
// JSON makes a float of every number, so a non-integral one was not meant as a priority.
if n != float64(int(n)) {
return 0, false
}
return int(n), true
case int:
return n, true
}
return 0, false
}
// asPath is the path prefix a rule is scoped to, or "" for every path.
func asPath(v any) string {
p, _ := v.(string)
p = strings.TrimSpace(p)
if p == "" {
return ""
}
if !strings.HasPrefix(p, "/") {
p = "/" + p
}
return p
}
// looksLikeACredential is the check that keeps a secret out of a declaration.
//
// It errs towards refusing: a value holding a `:` (the htpasswd separator) or opening with a bcrypt
// identifier is a credential, not a path, and no filesystem path the mesh writes needs either. A
// false refusal is a loud log and a route that does not serve; a false accept is a credential
// committed to a declaration, which is the thing being prevented.
func looksLikeACredential(v string) bool {
v = strings.TrimSpace(v)
return strings.Contains(v, ":") || strings.HasPrefix(v, "$2")
}
// usersFrom reads the credentials the mesh mounted, in the one format every htpasswd already is.
func usersFrom(path string) (map[string]string, error) {
raw, err := os.ReadFile(path)
if err != nil {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("cannot read the secret named for this route: %w", err)
}
users := map[string]string{}
for _, line := range strings.Split(string(raw), "\n") {
line = strings.TrimSpace(line)
if line == "" || strings.HasPrefix(line, "#") {
continue
}
user, hash, ok := strings.Cut(line, ":")
if !ok || user == "" || hash == "" {
continue
}
users[user] = hash
}
if len(users) == 0 {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("the secret named for this route holds no usable credentials")
}
return users, nil
}
// asPort accepts what JSON makes of a number, which is a float even when it was written 8080.
func asPort(v any) (int, bool) {
switch n := v.(type) {
case float64:
if n < 1 || n > 65535 {
return 0, false
}
return int(n), true
case int:
if n < 1 || n > 65535 {
return 0, false
}
return n, true
}
return 0, false
}